Verizon Wireless has signed an agreement with Triad Holdings L.L.C. to acquire Triad’s PCS licenses covering the Southern Oklahoma BTA of Ardmore and Lawton-Duncan. The new area, which covers total pops of 267,000, will become part of the Verizon Wireless South area. Verizon hopes to complete the transaction by the third quarter and launch service by April. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Nextel Partners has officially launched its all-digital wireless network, with service that combines digital cellular, Nextel Direct Connect digital two-way radio, Nextel Wireless Web services and text/numeric messaging, in the greater Green Bay region. To mark the launch, Nextel Partners has donated 10 phones and one year of free local service, valued at $15,000 total, to the Boys & Girls Club of Green Bay to enhance communication and safety.
Price Communications Corp. released results for its first quarter ended March 31. Most strikingly, net income was recorded at $1.466 million, down 73.8 percent from $5.6 million at the year-ago quarter. In addition, net income per share was down 74.3 percent, to 3 cents per share from last year’s 10 cents per share. The company ended the year with 541,774 subscribers, up 13.7 percent from the year-ago quarter. Price Communications blamed what it called disappointing results on a weakened economy, weeding out of non-revenue producing analog prepaid subscribers, loss of roaming traffic and lower roaming rates, competitors, migration to a new billing service, and the delay in the company’s pending sale to Verizon Wireless.
Yahoo! Everywhere announced the launch of its Yahoo! Online Account Access from Yahoo! Finance, a mobile banking application that allows users to access personal finance information, including bank, brokerage and credit card accounts, on their Web-enabled phones. Despite Yahoo!’s enthusiasm about its new service, a recent IDC forecast and analysis on mobile banking in the United States predicted that such services initially will not drive mobile Internet adoption because they will not be capable of necessary time critical features.
